One Hit KO

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with a special Pikk three article for you.  This Pikk Three article is not special because it has to take classes in school away from the rest of the class, it is special because it is all about cards that are coming out in the Dragons Exalted set.  This set will come out early in August, but the pre-releases start in just a couple weeks.  We do not know for sure what cards will be coming out in the set, but we do have some that are confirmed. Luckily for us the ones that are confirmed are pretty good.  So let’s take a look at three of the better cards coming out in Dragons Exalted.  I regret to inform you that Pedro will not be joining me on this article.  Pedro is on vacation this week, so he will be off for a while.  I also will probably not be making articles regularly, so bare with us during our vacations. Because this article is about cards that don’t always have official English scans, I will put in pictures of things I ate from my summer vacation.  I know it doesn’t make sense, but if you have ever seen this site before you will know that things rarely make sense.

Card #1 Mew EX

Description– Mew EX is a 120 HP Psychic EX basic Pokemon with a psychic weakness and a 1 retreat cost.  It has an Ability that is translated as “Versatile”, this let’s Mew EX use the attacks of all the Pokemon in play.  It also has one attack that is translated as “Replace”, for one energy this attack let’s you move energy on your side of the field any way you want.

Analysis-  Mew EX is a very interesting card.  It has one of the lowest HP of any EX Pokemon, but people are still excited for the card.  I haven’t heard many people making decks for it yet, but I have heard people saying that they wanted to put it in existing decks.  It is a card that people are wanting to play with, so I think it should have a bright future.

Let’s take a look at the basic stats.  120 HP is very poor for an EX.  The 1 retreat cost is very good, but the weakness is bad.  For right now the career of Mew EX will be measured by how it can do against Mewtwo EX.  Since Mewtwo EX is one of the best Pokemon out right now and it is psychic weak, Mew will have to deal with Mewtwo EX first.  His attack is cool but not really something that would cause anybody to play him more.  Sure Shaymin UL made a career of doing the exact same thing, but doing it as a Poke-Power is different than doing it as an attack.  What everybody is talking about is the Ability.  Having the ability to use either your opponent’s attack or one of your attacks and hit Mewtwo and Gothitelle for weakness will be a huge thing in the next format.  It is something that you will need to plan for, you can’t just splash it into any deck, but if used right, Mew EX could be a great tool for you.

The big question now is, “what is the best situation for Mew EX.”  If used wrong, Mew EX will just be an easy 2 prize for your opponent so you must use it carefully.  He won’t be a good starter, so don’t plan to use a lot of copies of this card.  I could see this card being used in something like an Emboar deck.  If you are using Emboar to put energies on Reshiram and Entei EX, than you can easily fit in Mew EX to use one of your fire Pokemon’s attacks to hit Mewtwo EX for weakness.  It would also be a cool thing to copy Tornadus EX’s attack to get an easy attack off.

There are going to be good uses for Mew EX, but I think that it also has a lot of bad things about it.  The low HP means that a lot of good Pokemon can OHKO it easily.  The retreat cost also gets me, if it has such a low HP you think they would at least give ya free retreat.  The attack also does not really get you out of trouble if you are in any.  Also, the fact that Mewtwo EX can also be used to counter other Mewtwo EXs also might hurt Mew EX.

All things considered, I think that Mew EX will see a lot of play.  It is much more versatile than Mewtwo EX, and in an era where Pokemon Techs will be key, Mew EX will be one of the better ones.  It is almost always going to be helpful to you if you play it, I really like the card.

Final Rating–8/10– It is hard to give a rating to a card that has not came out yet in a format that is not yet finalized, but this is a good guess. I think there will be room for Mew in this format, and that the use of this guy will be handy for a lot of decks out there.  It seems like one of those cards that gives you a lot of options that a lot of the good players will use.

Card #2 Terrakion EX

Description– Terrakion EX is a 180 HP basic fighting type EX Pokemon with a 3 retreat cost and a weakness to grass.  It’s first attack is called “Rock Tumble” and it does 50 damage for FC.  This damage is not effected by resistance, this is a great effect to have with Tornadus and Tornadus EX still running around.  The second attack is called “Pump Smash”, and if Pedro were here he might tell you that “Pump Smash” was the name of a movie he just saw.  Anyway, this attack does 90 damaged and lets you attach 2 basic energies from your hand to any of your Pokemon.

Analysis– There has been some hype about this Pokemon.  With Eelektrik decks still popular a lot of people are wanting to make better fighting decks, and Terrakion EX can sure make these decks better.  As long as lightning decks don’t fall off of the face of the planet Terrakion EX should see a lot of play initially.  The second attack on Terrakion EX makes me think a lot, but I guess we can talk more about that later.

Let us look at the basic stats.  180 HP seems to be the normal for big guy EXs, so that is good.  The retreat cost could be better, but it is expected in a Terrakion card, so nothing new there.  The grass weakness right now is really good, that could change but right now it looks good.  The attacks are pretty good and can be used in a couple different ways.  Overall the stats look very good on this guy and the playability looks good for the near future.

Initially I was just going to say that I think that this is a good card for fighting decks to do a lot of damage to counter lightning decks.  It would be a big tank that could do a lot of damage and take hits.  But, I think with the effect of the second attack this card has the potential to be something much different.  Not many cards can deal a lot of damage and then attach 2 energy cards.  This can open a lot of different opportunities for decks with Terrakion EX in it.  I am much too dumb of a player to suggest a good Pokemon to run with Terrakion, but I think that there has to be another good Pokemon that you can combine Terrakion EX with, besides the normal fighting Pokemon.  Even if there is not a big combo out there with Terrakion EX, I am sure that he will still be a great card.

Final Rating– 8.5/10– I see great things in the future for Terrakion EX.  I am not sure exactly how it will play out, but I do think that this card will see a lot of play.  Not only in mono-fighting decks, but in some different decks.  I can see this card being in some tool boxey like deck, kind of like the Troll deck was last season.  I could see Terrakion EX being a good starter in a deck that features a lot of different Pokemon.  The ability to attach two energies from your hand after you do your big attack is just an amazing ability that opens up so many options for you.  I don’t quite know what is in the future for this guy, but I know that it is all good things.

Card #3 Garchomp

Description– Garchomp is a 140 HP stage 2 Dragon Pokemon with a dragon weakness and a 1 retreat cost.  It has two attacks.  The first attack is called “Mach Cut”, this does 60 damage for F and lets you discard a special energy card attached to the defending Pokemon.  The second attack is called “Dragonblade”, and does 100 damage for FW and forces you to mill two cards.

Analysis– The stats of this card get me excited.  The 140 HP might not sound great in the BBP era, but it is good for a stage 2.  The 1 retreat cost is very good for a non bird 140 HP Pokemon.  So those things are very positive.  It does have a dragon weakness, I am not sure how good or bad that will be since that is  a new frontier for all of us.  It sounds like with Rayquaza EX and this Garchomp running loose it could be a bad weakness, but we never know.  I like both attacks.  The first attack does 60 damage for one energy and discards an energy from the defending Pokemon, this is not a game changing attack, but it is good.  The second attack does 100 damage for two energies and a mill of 2.  The two energy attack is good, 100 damage is good because with 2 Plus Powers you should be able to 2HKO any Eviolited EX.  I do not like the mill of two however, if you do it a couple times a game you should be okay, but if you are thinking of using this attack over 3 times a game you will be discarding a lot of good resources, and that will eventually hurt you.  All of these attacks could get a lot better with the new Altaria (if it comes out in the next set), because he will increase the attacks by 20 damage.  This should get you doing serious damage for 1 energy and an assured 2HKO on an EX for your two energy attack.

I like this Pokemon.  With some good attacks that only cost one and two energies, you should have a pretty efficient deck.  There has been some hype with this card.  I have not heard a whole heck of a lot about this card in terms of exact plans, but I know that some people have been hyping Garchomp/Altaria.  It should be a cool deck and a good card.  Like I said before, it is really hard to forecast how good new cards will be in a new format, but I do think that this should be a good card.

I am kind of hesitant about this card though.  It is a stage 2.  As a rule of thumb for the last format you should stay away from stage 2s.  The BBP do get a little better in the new format, but then again the format does get a little slower, so maybe Stage 2s will be a little playable.  But, just make sure that your deck is fast and consistent if you are putting a stage 2 and some stage 1s in it.  The jury is still out in evolutions in the BW-on format, but if any non-drawing deck can work, it could be this one.

As mentioned, the prevailing wisdom with this card is that it should be paired with Altaria from this set. Altaria is a stage 1 Pokemon that adds 20 damage to each attack by your Dragon type Pokmeon, this extra 20 damage could be stackable (we are still waiting on an official translation).  With 3 Altaria’s in play you can do 120 damage for just 1 energy with Garchomp, and you can still discard a special energy attached to the defending!  If you can get this deck setup and going on any regular basis you should be really good.

Final Rating– 8.25/10– I do like this card, but I am not quite sure about it.  It should be a good card and deck, but I am not ready to step out and say that it will be.  A lot of good players that I have talked to our anxious to test this card and get it going, so that should be a good thing for this card.  Garchomp also seems to be fairly versatile, so it does not just have to be in a deck with Altaria.  I think it could be in a cool tool box like deck if you worked it right.  The future of this card is all in front of it, it should be a bright future.  Just be careful about relying on Garchomp as your main attacker, those 2 cards you discard will eventually end up costing your resources if you keep on using the 2nd attack.

Well, that’s all I got to say

So long and thanks for all the fish!

Category: Pikks Three | Tags: Garchomp DRX, Mew EX, Terrakion EX